ICD9 Codes
...Diseases (ICD-9). The ICD-9-CM is the official system of assigning codes for the purposes of billing the patient and/or insurance companies for diagnoses and procedures associated with hospital utilization in the United States. The ICD-9 is used to code and classify mortality data from death certificates. ICD-9-CM is the method for selecting and assigning diagnosis codes for a variety of reporting purposes. ICD-9 codes are a required element when a claim for medical services is submitted to any third party payer, including Medicare and Medicaid. Payers are especially focused on the ICD codes, and may deny claims when not accurately coded. The ICD-9-CM consists of: +a tabular list containing a numerical list of the disease code numbers in tabular form; +an alphabetical index to the disease entries; +a classification system for surgical, diagnostic, and therapeutic procedures (alphabetic index and tabular list). In the US, the system takes on another purpose as the HIPAA-mandated coding system used in medical billing. ICD-9 Clinical Modification (CM) is the system currently used in the US for medical billing purposes. It is more streamlined and accurate than the ICD-9 alone, including 5-digit codes where ICD-9 does not. The ICD-9 system is updated an annual basis. New codes go into effect on October 1 of each year. The ICD-9-CM has been revised periodically to incorporate changes in the medical field. The U.S. introduced its own classification and coding rules for Human Immunodeficiency Virus infection (HIV) mortality effective with the 1987 data year, for example. The need to replace ICD-9-CM was identified 10 years ago, in 1993, when the National Committee on Vital and Health Statistics reported that ICD-9-CM was rapidly becoming outdated and recommended immediate US commitment to developing unilateral and significant changes with the ICD-10 for morbidity and mortality coding. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, recommended that steps should be taken to improve the flexibility of ICD-9-CM or replace it with a more flexible option. The current coding system, ICD-9-CM, was created in 1979, and is no longer able to meet our healthcare needs; despite annual updates. Terminology and classification of numerous conditions and procedures are outdated and inconsistent with current medical knowledge and application. ICD-9-CM also cannot address the increasing pressure for more specific codes, especially codes that can keep up with new technology. Outdated codes provide inaccurate or limited data and insufficient detail related to health diagnoses, procedures, and technologies. Medical care has changed drastically since ICD-9-CM was implemented. Many new healthcare diagnoses and services can no longer be described accurately using ICD-9-CM. According to the Center for National Statistics, the Tenth Revision (ICD-10) differs from the ICD-9 in several ways although the overall ...